Column: ‘little free art gallery’ pops up in Morro Bay

Posted: 10:12 am, February 12, 2022 by Ruth Ann Angus

Mini art gallery trend had its beginnings in Seattle, Washington

– You’ve heard of or seen those little free libraries, right? Well, that concept has grown and expanded into the world of visual arts, and it is on display and available here in Morro Bay, California.

Drive down Monterey Street between Driftwood and Anchor and there it is, a cute little crafted box shaped like a teeny house with a large window. Inside, artist Katherine Heistrand Shields displays small art items that you can take, or just look at, or leave one of your own. “It’s take a piece of art, leave a piece of art, or simply browse,” Shields said as I met with her after discovering one of her bookmarks at the Morro Bay Art Center.

Shields went on to explain that the idea is the same as the little free library where people can take a book to read and leave one if they have a mind to. Little free libraries have sprung up all over the place and some include canned food items.

While the art in the little art gallery needs to be small, artists could display a photo of a piece of art and include a label on the rear of the photo as to who the artist is and where the original is housed. However, even the photos of larger art items are there for anyone to take – all for free!

This is not a new idea that suddenly erupted in Morro Bay, it had its beginnings with Stacy Milrany of Seattle, Washington. Milrany appreciated art and the creativity of artists and with her love of the little free libraries on her mind, she combined them with the hope to shed some light, beauty and maybe a little levity on a “heavy world and catastrophic year. Thus, she created the Little Free Art Gallery in Seattle that opened on Dec. 13, 2020.

The germination for the tiny galleries came out of Milrany’s effort to cheer her mother who in 2019 was going through chemotherapy treatments for cancer. Since her mom lived three hours away from her, she chose to mail her a little postcard-sized piece of art every day. “It was something made by human hands to add some brightness,” she has written on her website. Her mother accumulated 145 pieces of four-inch by six-inch art pieces that were filled with beauty and color and gave her optimism as she traveled through her cancer journey.

By March of 2020, while we were all safe at home due to COVID-19, Milrany wondered if she could offer some optimism to more people, and she began mailing similar art postcards to friends and family. It was her way of dealing with being cut off from the world and an attempt to bring some “light and levity” to others. The small artworks and her love of the little libraries finally sparked her idea for the Little Free Art Gallery, the name of which has changed to Free Little Art Gallery (FLAG).

A friend helped her construct a small structure outside her home and in the first 30 days some 90 pieces of small art from various people came and went.

Now these FLAGs are popping up all over the place. Shields visited one in Palo Alto recently. FLAG-MB is a cute tiny cottage adhered to posts on the fence in front of her home. Shields is willing to share ideas for more free little art galleries and you can contact her at flagmorrobay@gmail.com or follow on Instagram at @flagmb. Better yet why not stop by and find an art piece that appeals to you and take it home? Then go and create something yourself and share it!

As Milrany posted on her website: “Art is many things. Among them is simply proof of human existence and when we’re cut off from one another as we have been in this pandemic, it’s more important than ever. It serves as another reminder that when we can’t be there for each other physically, we’re still here together sharing this common human experience called life.”

–By Columnist Ruth Ann Angus